Redford's change agenda put to test
By Don Braid, Calgary Herald October 28, 2011

The Health Quality Council of Alberta tells us many things we already knew (wow, long ER wait times!) but some we didn't. And those matters reinforce the absolute need for a full judicial inquiry into health care.

Dr. John Cowell, head of HQCA, wasn't able to find a list of patients waiting for lung cancer surgery - the one Dr. Raj Sherman claimed contained 1,200 patients, 250 of whom he insisted had died before getting surgery.

Cowell does say that there may be such a list. But he seems to lack authority to pursue it further.

Cowell also said AHS has been very co-operative; and yet, three players he wanted to interview haven't responded.

He identifies what can only be called a culture of intimidation, in which doctors who advocated for patients were sometimes punished. "Disturbing," he calls it.

The HQCA has done some good work here. This body is excellent at finding the technical problems in health care. Cowell himself appears to be a fearless fellow.

But he doesn't have the tools to get to the heart of the matter; and never will, one suspects, even if the province beefs up the HQCA mandate.

His interim report doesn't even deal with a key recent allegation, Dr. Stephen Duckett's charge that the "political class" in Alberta got better access to health care.

Such suspicions have always lurked around the edges of the system, for good reason.

This week, an ex-minister told me that when his mother was very ill, the chair of a health region asked him if he wanted her care speeded up.

This former minister said he refused because that wasn't right; also, his family believed his mother was already getting good care.

Stories like that - this one true, I'm convinced - can only come out through a judicial inquiry run by a judge with power to subpoena witnesses, swear them in, and make them testify.

At a judicial inquiry, the list of witnesses might be very interesting.

Former premier Ed Stelmach could be called. On Thursday, Cowell said Stelmach did not appoint an "expert panel" that he had promised doctors in 2008.

Current Health Minister Fred Horne could find himself on the stand. So might his two predecessors, Gene Zwozdesky and Ron Liepert.

You can see why many PCs are not keen on this.

And yet, the most compelling call for an inquiry yet came from the new premier, Alison Redford, during the PC leadership campaign.

She did that in June after ex-CEO Duckett made his allegation about privileged access.

Now Redford seems to be sliding away from her pledge. This week, she and Horne began referring to a "fully independent inquiry."

Cowell confirmed Thursday he's talked to Horne about extra powers for HQCA so it could conduct a deeper investigation.

But that would not be the judicial inquiry Redford promised. It wouldn't be the pledge that so annoyed Stelmach that he said she was talking like New Democrats and Liberals.

Here's exactly what Redford said June 7 in a news release called: "Alison Redford calls for Judicial Inquiry."

"Alison Redford, in light of growing accusations of political interference in the health-care system, has called for a judicial inquiry.

"The inquiry will focus on charges of political interference into the provincial health-care system.

"Dr. Duckett . . . stated outright that before his tenure as CEO of AHS, people of the 'political class' were accustomed to being granted higher access in the system than those who were not as connected.

"This statement, when combined with earlier allegations of a culture of intimidation, has provided the impetus to call for an independent inquiry."

The goal, Redford said, was to "increase access for all Albertans. Not Albertans with the right friends."

Redford made a clear, specific promise about health care.

Many of her MLAs don't like it.

But if she's really the boss, she has to keep that promise. There's no clearer test of her vow to change the way government works.

Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald dbraid@CalgaryHerald.com

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald